FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mary E Emich
Director of Marketing, Sales and Visitor Services
Arizona Aerospace Foundation
6000 East Valencia Rd
Tucson, AZ 85756
Phone 520 574-0462
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"KITTY HAWK" THE WRIGHT BROTHER FILM AIRING MONDAY AT THE PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM!
Tucson, AZ–Aug. 16, 2013. To commemorate National Aviation Day (Orville Wright’s birthday on Aug. 19), Pima Air & Space Museum will serve FREE birthday cake Monday and show the official Wright Brothers’ National Memorial film “Kitty Hawk: the Wright Brothers’ Journey of Invention.” The 115-minute movie, depicting how the Wrights developed the first successful “heavier-than-air” flying machine, features the voices of Neil Armstrong and John Glenn as Orville and Wilbur Wright. This “gripping tale of hardship, perseverance and spectacular triumph,” according to the jacket cover, will be shown at 10am and 1pm in the Dorothy Finley Space Gallery Education Room. The DVD will also be available for purchase during the month of August in the Pima Air & Space Museum Store. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Wright Brothers’ National Memorial to show the beginning of aviation,” stated Mina Stafford, Curator of Education at the Pima Air & Space Museum. “It’s amazing how two Midwestern bicycle mechanics with no formal training accomplished this world-changing feat,” she continued. Pima Air & Space Museum displays a replica of the Wright Flyer complete with a manikin to demonstrate the hip-controlled yaw (aka lateral motion/rudder), key to the Flyer’s and the Wright’s Brothers’ success.
Other “included in the price of admissions” special National Aviation Day activities are an open cock pit/photo op (the T-33) and FREE birthday cake (limited quantities, first-come-first served) in Flight Grill. Arizona Aerospace Foundation members will receive an unprecedented extra 10% off in the museum shop on Aug. 19th only (for a total of 20% savings, even on summer clearance items!).
ABOUT PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
Be wowed at Pima Air & Space Museum, one of the largest aviation museums in the world and the largest non-government-funded in the U.S. (TripAdvisor ranks it in the Top 10% worldwide for excellent ratings.) Its significant collection, 300 strong from around the globe, covers commercial, military and civil aviation alongside more than 125,000+ artifacts, including a moon rock donated by Tucsonan and Astronaut Frank Borman. Be amazed by many all-time great aircraft: the SR-71 Blackbird (the world’s fastest spy plane); a B-29 Superfortress (the WWII bomber that flew higher, farther and faster plus carried more bombs); the world’s smallest bi-plane; the C-54 (the Berlin Airlift’s star flown by the famous “Candy Bomber” Col. USAF (Ret.) Gail Halvorsen, a Tucson-area winter resident); plus planes used as renowned-contemporary-artists’ canvases, including Brazilian graffiti artist Nunca. Explore five large hangars totaling more than 177,000 indoor square feet—almost four football fields¬—of air/space craft, heroes’ stories and scientific phenomena. Two+ hangars are dedicated to WWII, one each to the European and Pacific theaters. Pima Air & Space maintains its own aircraft restoration center. It also operates exclusive tours of the “Boneyard,” aka the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, plus offers a docent-led tram tour of its 80 acres (additional fees apply). Pima Air & Space Museum is located at 6000 E. Valencia Rd., just off I-10 exit 267, in Tucson. More information can be found at www.pimaair.org, on Facebook www.facebook.com/PimaAirAndSpace, or by calling 520 574-0462.
Note: The 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy) Memorial Museum, located on the Pima Air & Space Museum grounds, is closed for reconstruction until further notice.
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